Prosecutors have requested that a Belgian man be sentenced to seven years in prison for sexually abusing his niece, Belga News Agency reports.
The man, who is in his 70s, is accused of repeatedly abusing his brother's daughter between May 2010 and February 2019.
Prosecutors further allege that the man began abusing the victim, who was initially just twelve years old, shortly after he entered into a relationship with his brother's widow.
The man has already admitted to sexually abusing his niece but denies that he ever raped her.
"I shouldn't have, but I touched her chest," he told a court in Verviers, Wallonia. "I considered her my own daughter. We were really, really close."
A ruling is expected on 19 January next year.
